Our blog began as a journal of our decision to take a life changing journey by living in Panama, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Mexico. In December, 2013, we made the final decision to live in Puerto Vallarta, MX, where we have resided since. So now the blog is a monthly posting of our monthly expenditures with dialogue of some of the monthly highlights. Please continue to follow along as this journey keeps unfolding!

Sunday, January 1, 2017

Wow, time is flying by here in beautiful PV where we once again proved that you can live well for a very reasonable budget. (See our Year End analysis published in January, 2015 & January, 2016.)

So, off we go again into this year trying to continue to live within our income but still keeping our goal of no more than $2,000/month for our true Living Expenses. And, if we keep our total expenses to no more than an average of $2,500/month, it leaves a good bit for our love of traveling and other "wants".

January was an extremely busy month for us! Many show openings that we love to attend. Free tickets in lieu of doing some advertising work for local entertainment venues. Thank You!!

February highlight was our trip to the mountains of MX to see the Monarch Butterflies. High season is in full swing.

March was a month of meeting up with many visiting friends & catching up with friends we really hadn't had a chance to see since the holidays. We splurged on several meals out.

April was the time we took to do some preventative medical exams. We are extremely grateful to have a medical guru here in PV. Pam Thompson-Webb of HealthCareResourcesPV.com. She runs medical clinics every month. As members (very inexpensive), we get discounted medical exams with specialists of all areas.

May! Oh, WOW!!! Low Season, oh heck NO!! So many people coming to town to check out living here. So many people moving to town to call this home!! A mini vacation with 8 other friends up the coast to Guayabitos, Restaurant Weeks where many wonderful restaurants offer their fabulous food at reduced special prices so that us on a budget can partake in their gourmet food, Pride Week, Friday Foodies all contributed to this wonderful month here in PV.

We also signed a new 2 year lease extension, so we made a few minor purchases to continue to make this our home - new bedspread, sheets with 1500 thread count, an antique mirror with PV history.

But, the biggest single expense for May was Mike deciding to get a tooth implant at Dental Avant Garde. He had a CT scan to see if he had enough bone ($108), then the actual surgery ($1,177). His crown will be placed after a 4-6 month healing process. This tipped the scale over our monthly budget goal but still well within our yearly income, which is our ultimate goal of living only on our income.

June saw a bit of a respite on the expenses sort of back to "normal", if there is such a thing. We had several friends move to PV, so we did a lot of catching up with each other. Our biggest expense this month, however, was as a celebration of signing our new 2 year lease extension in our condo, we treated ourselves to the purchase of a new "L" shaped, comfortable, fabric sofa!! So wonderful!

I also took a part time job doing media coordinating for a local organization. My time is most certainly not idle!!

July & Aug was spent between PV and the US. We took our annual East Coast to West Coast trip to visit family and friends. We renewed our health insurance, which had a slight increase.

On Aug. 20, we set off back to the states to begin our Bucket List journey to see China & Thailand for 22 days. But, before we embarked on that trip, we spent 3 lovely days in Las Vegas visiting our good friends, Lorena Peril & Ray Jon Narbaitz. We returned to PV on September 15.

We had an unexpected trip back to the US leaving PV on September 22 returning on October 5.

October is my birthday month. So this year, as I turned 65, I had a big party with a live band & custom birthday cake at Nacho Daddy. We also made an unexpected acquisition of a used side by side stainless steel GE profile refrigerator at a terrific price. That then entailed that Mike had to buy parts and install the water/ice maker lines.

November saw High Season come into full swing for this year. New shows opening, high season activities, all restaurants back open. It was also the month that Mike got his post & crown for the tooth implant that he had done 6 months ago.

December came and went before my very eyes! Friends came for short visits and many of our snowbird friends arrived. Also, the theaters came to full life with many opening shows. As a result, our social calendar was quite full. Mike & I celebrated our 3rd full year living in PV on December 15th and our 16th wedding anniversary last night. Life if very full for us and we are still living very large on a very small budget and within our means.

Looking at our expenses and our travel costs, we did extremely well again! For EVERYTHING not including our travel costs (totally discretionary), we spent $31,118. If you look at only our living expenses that included many enjoyable nights out for dinner & drinks, we only spent $20,695. If you take out our rent (if you should want to buy), our expenses were $11,095.

The point being, is that you can play with these numbers any way you want to help you determine your own lifestyle. No matter what, we are very happy that we have not increased our spending as time has gone on during these 3 years. We've signed a new 2 year lease, so we will be here in our current condo until then.

In February, we took a wonderful 4 day/3 night trip to see the Monarch Butterflies in the mountains of MX. This amount included transportation, hotels, meals, souvenirs, entrance fees, etc.

In May, we took a 3 day trip with 8 other friends up the coast to Guayabitos for a quick get away.

In July, we spent 25 days in the US. We flew to CT then across the country to Spokane, WA. The cost amount shown includes air fares, any hotels, meals & drinks out, new clothing/shoes/personal items, traveler's insurance & car liability insurance.

During the month of September, we were only in PV one week as we were on our China/Thailand journey & then an unexpected trip back to the US for a family matter. I have accounted for all expenditures for both trips including visas, air fare, meals, tours, souvenirs, drinks, traveler's insurance, etc. In December, we made a 3 day trip south 2 hours to an extremely small village called Mayto with 11 good friends via car. We stayed in a small hotel right on the most beautiful white sand beach. For the 2 nights hotel, all meals, gas costs, we spent only $92US. Gotta love it!!